Mercury in Pisces in the 3rd. Conj Ceres and Pluto both balsamic. Ruled by Neptune in Sag in 12th. In first quarter square with Neptune and Saturn . Mercury is also the ruler of his 7th house and squares his AC-DC axis. Mercury ruler of intercepted Virgo in the 9th. Mars Gibbous sesquiquadrate Mars in Libra in the 10th. Mercury first quarter trine Uranus and North node.

A lot of this has already been specifically addressed during the initial Pluto and the nodes interpretation, since Mercury is right there with Pluto. We’re looking specifically at how this soul has created an intellectual framework for identifying and giving names to the objects of phenomenal reality. Why this Mercury, how did this serve the soul’s ongoing evolutionary intentions?

In prior lives this soul has already been on a literally never ending quest to gather more knowledge that would explain the interconnectedness between all things. Mercury balsamic to Pluto in Pisces. Yet the implications therein, and this is emphasized by way of the square between Mercury to the 12th house planets, is that no amount of knowledge will ever be able to connect all the dots to the point that the totality of consciousness is understood in a total way through the mind alone. And yet the first quarter square with Mercury to its ruler, Neptune in Sag, implies that in the life of Darwin the intention was to formulate a new way of thinking about the origin of life, the total meaning and nature of all things. The stress within this would be to see new perspectives, instead of falling back on the logical conclusions that had been previously made. For example, throughout the early years of Darwin, there was a solid attempt to rationalize why the bible was total truth.

Quote

With the aim of becoming a clergyman he went to the University of Cambridge for the required BA degree, which included studies of Anglican theology. He took great interest in natural history and became filled with zeal for science as defined by John Herschel, based on the natural theology of William Paley which presented the argument from divine design in nature to explain adaptation as God acting through laws of nature.[2][3] On the voyage of the Beagle he remained orthodox and looked for "centres of creation" to explain distribution, but towards the end of the voyage began to doubt that species were fixed.[4][5] By this time he was critical of the Bible as history, and wondered why all religions should not be equally valid. Following his return in October 1836, he developed his novel ideas of geology while speculating about transmutation of species and thinking about religion.

The balsamic to Pluto correlates to a culmination that was occurring in the life of Darwin. There has been a deep seated security need to know, to come up with conclusions as to make sense out of why life is the way it is: why this species, why this development, why this environment etc . The intention was for this soul to bring to a culmination all kinds of perceptions (Pluto) regarding the nature of things; the evolutionary intention to totally focus the mind, to concentrate - and in that sense weeding out opinions and perceptions that do not logically add up. The fact of this Mercury ruling the intercepted 9th house – which pretty much just has Lucifer there, means that there was also a great degree of existential lack; self doubt regarding his ability to synthesize everything and connect to larger reality outside of what he was able identify. His mind was ultimately directed towards creating a sense of unity and context through a logical set of conclusions based upon a large set of observed data (Mercury trine Uranus) which allowed him to essentially put to rest, exhaust, the strong need/desire to know (Mercury balsamic Pluto). This balsamic conjunction implies to me as well that after the life of Darwin, the soul would be setting forth on a new evolutionary journey – breaking apart the old constructs as the soul would become exposed to more subtle data/sensory experience that would then lead to a completely new investigation into the interconnectedness of all things.

The first quarter trine to Uranus and the north node, given that they are both ruled by Pluto which takes us back to a mutual reception between Neptune and Jupiter, implies that a lot of these observations classifications and conclusions had already been intuited to some degree, and that this life was about creatively actualizing what had already been previously sensed. The Mercury balsamic to Pluto again would create difficulties in actually putting to words the raw content that his brain was able to pick up on. There was a great importance for this soul on alone time – this allowed him to formulate his ideas and transfer the Aquarian observations into direct correlations and classifications. Uranus is the ruler of the 2nd house, Chiron in 2nd square the nodes, and all the correlations to the Moon in the 2nd already discussed.

The Mercury sesquiquadrate to Mars emphasizes a theme that comes up a couple other times as well: the need to put forth effort relative to his own accumulation and identification of data and ideas while also operating within a social context that has its own established rules and social constructs. The stress within this would be something regarding the need to fit into the prevailing social structures, what other people expect of him as well as how he has become conditioned to behave, without that limiting his need for drawing his own conclusions; the need to keep his mind completely open and receptive to whatever may show up. Initially, there was a great amount of doubt and guilt within this soul relative to his scientific findings and conclusions:

Quote

Darwin was clearly worried by the implications of his ideas and desperate to avoid distress to his naturalist friends and to his wife. When first telling his friends, he wrote "it is like confessing a murder", and his writings at the time of the publication of Darwin's theory suggest emotional turmoil. What is unclear is whether this was anxiety about disgrace and damage to his friends, or about his loss of faith in Christianity, or indeed a rational fear of the harsh treatment he had seen meted out to radicals and proponents of evolutionism.

The purpose however was to simply continue with his work and to allow it to all unfold as it would, which it did. Interesting though that this gibbous Mars Mercury in relation to the Pisces/Neptune disillusionment about God and the bible, with Mercury ruling the intercepted 9th house. I can sense within these signatures, in relation to the Pisces Sag squares, how emotionally devastating it would have initially been for this soul to come to the kinds of conclusions that he ended up coming to.

One general correlation of Pisces linked to the 3rd house and its square to Neptune in Sagittarius is forgiving himself for the answers he cannot find. During his trip on the beagle, he finally let go of the theologies that he was not able to logically sustain, and in so doing became receptive, Pisces, to a more lucid and whole and logically sound organization of reality, 3rd house. Of course this happened on a boat in the water.

The south node of Mercury is in Capricorn in the 2nd house, disseminating square with Mars in the 10th – further emphasizing the prior life stress within this soul to oblige by the accepted social opinions. Yet the evolutionary emphasis for this soul is clear with the north node of Mercury on Mercury itself all trine to the North node and Uranus leading us back to the Aquarius in the 2nd house: to continue to put together more of the pieces of the puzzle of existence no matter what that looks like.

Mercury squares and rules the 7th house. On the DC itself is the north node of Uranus, also in a disseminating square with Mercury. This symbolizes the ongoing evolutionary intention for this soul to open its mind to more perspectives, more ways of looking at the world of appearances. In the life of Darwin, there would have been important dialogs and conversations that would reflect back to him all kinds of dualistic/reactive thought patterns – constantly confronting where there are unanswered questions, and always another possible perspective to engage. Since Mercury squares Neptune Saturn and the Sag AC as well, I can see how these dialogs would have served 2 general purposes:

1. To help him to see perspectives/gather information from others who saw things differently than himself, thus allowing for the soul to be exposed to more information and context.2.In the same vein, to reflect back to him the limitations, Saturn, in all the various cosmologies and beliefs that use logic in order to re-capitulate and prove what has already decided upon as true.

I can see the possibility with this dynamic as well that Darwin would cylicly immerse himself in dialog in order to affect the necessary exchange of ideas and reflections – and would also frequently need to completely retreat from such dialogs. Pluto squares the DC ruled by Mercury which is in balsamic conjunction with Pluto. This emphasizes the ongoing evolutionary need to weed out unnecessary dialog and conversation dynamics/tendencies so as simplify, Sagittarius, all the data and perspectives through his own natural intuition.

Thanks for making the effort that you have in understanding the EA of why Darwin chose the Mercury placement that he did. Your EA analysis is succinct and accurate, the EA reasoning employed being very sound. This is how EA is meant to be done.

First, Kristin, very, very sorry to hear of the health issues that you have shared here that will prevent you from moving forwards, at this time, with the ongoing work on Darwin's chart. All of us are sending you the best of our energy to help you heal.

For the rest of our group please let me know where each of you are in the current step of understanding the EA of why Darwin chose the Mercury placement that he did.

I am working on it- not sure yet when I will be finished, but I should be able to complete it in the same time frame as everyone else (unless everyone else posts today!).

Since we are on the subject of Mercury function, I've included a link below showing a video I think is very fascinating, using the medium of video to reveal some of the mercury function of an autistic person- the first part is in native language, the second part uses assistive technology to translate thoughts into english language:http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=JnylM1hI2jc

Kristin,I hope your health issues are not very serious and wish your complete recovery soon.Until then I will miss your kind presence in our group and the learning that your analysis provide.BlessingsMirta

This community is SO special..I feel the warmth of your generous hearts and it is a true healing. It is an honor to walk with you all.

Thank you for the link Linda..Deva Premal is a favorite of mine, along with Snatum Kaur.OM AH HUM VAJRA PADME SIDDHI HUM

PEACE,Kristin

PS. Upasika, your last post on Dawin's Moon reminded me so much of Jeffrey's writings and teachings. There was such an ease and a depth in your delivery. You have taken this work all the way into your Soul. What incredible growth to witness. This growth is true for all of you.

To summarise from various previous posts … in the Soul’s distant past lives it has invariably suffered from great hardship, loss of family and many desperate struggles to survive. To help cope with this it turned to orthodox religion, with a by-product of this being that the associated studying of religious texts and scriptures seeded an interest in the development of it’s mind. Over many lives the Soul eventually started to thirst for a deeper more fulfilling religious experience, and it broke away on it’s own individual quest, identifying in the process it’s recently initialised mind as it’s best resource to help it both for survival and individuation.

We know that since then the Soul has had an extended involvement in mental searching and development. As a result it has had it’s eyes opened by the truth on many occasions, but in this process it has struggled to integrate it’s truth with the societies in which it has lived due to a mixture of naivety, arrogance or the threat it’s truth posed to these societies. We know that periodically the Soul retreated from this individual quest back into the safety of monasteries and other sheltered places, concealing it’s light and hiding from society in general when it did so, also hiding from it’s own wounds and refusing to deal with it’s long term guilt and deepening self-worth crisis. Nevertheless, inevitably it would always pick itself up again at some point and venture forth again on it’s mission.

But in more recent lifetimes all these conflicting realities started coming to a head. The skipped steps in the Soul’s evolution began creating blockage, causing the Soul to abandon it’s intentions, and try to haphazardly escape into various diverging experiences and directions, in order to bring some relief from the stagnation and frustration that had accumulated within itself.

Prolonged Stagnation — had developed as a result of the repressed trauma, pain and guilt related to all the hardships and family disasters experienced in distant times, and also as a result of the severely injured sense of self-worth which had occurred since then (Chiron in Aquarius 2nd square both — NN Moon and Uranus in Scorpio 11th, and SN Moon in Taurus 5th: meaning both Nodes, 5th & 11th houses, have been active before the current lifetime, as well as the 3rd & 9th houses).

Deep Frustration — due to the disruptions and delays to it’s mental development in many past lives, as a result of it’s on-going battles with society, combined with the endless need to find/provide the resources required to keep it’s family and itself alive. Frustration with the conflict inherent in the Soul’s continuing desires to individuate through developing it’s mental faculties, contrasted with it’s need for the kind of security and preservation that could only be fulfilled by having a family - with the inherently high demand for time and resources that always entailed (SN Pluto and SN Mercury conj Moon both in Capricorn 2nd; aspecting many planets in the 3rd - semisquare Mercury/Pluto, quintile Venus, semisextile Pallas; and SN Mercury square — NN Moon Scorpio 11th and Mars Libra 10th, and also SN Moon Taurus 5th).

At the core of these skipped steps was the deep need to start healing the trauma, to reverse the damage to it’s self-esteem, and most importantly to finally bring these countless past lives of mental exploration and development (Pluto in the middle of an intensely packed 3rd house stellium) to some kind of culmination, fruition (Mercury balsamic phase Juno and Jupiter, and balsamic conj Ceres and Pluto – all in Pisces 3rd, all ruled by {and Pluto DS square to} {Sat balsamic conj} Neptune in the 12th) — through creating a completely new religious and social understanding (Pluto new conj Jupiter in Pisces 3rd) from it’s ripe and now vast mental capacity.

And we also know that for many lives now frustration has arisen due to the inherently limiting mental views or constructions, “arrangements of fact”, that the Soul has been crystallizing within itself, in it’s on-going attempts to stabilise by creating pictures of reality it could feel secure in (Pluto in 3rd).

*********

It is from this point that the Soul has now incarnated again as Charles Darwin, and as has been extensively discussed, chose an Aquarius Sun and Capricorn Moon in balsamic semisextile in the 2nd house (along with the various aspects they form) in order to — focus, stabilise, anchor, and keep his feet on the ground; to face his wounds rather than run away from them, to provide an enhanced ability to reflect so he could process lifetimes of emotional trauma and guilt, to provide an easy ability to focus on all his unfinished and incomplete business from a long series of lives, to be able to recreate many past life traumas in a contained way so healing and new choices regarding these could happen in the face of the old dynamics; to give him balance between the old and new, set him on a path of emotional self-sufficiency, provide protection of the psyche from any more damage at the hands of the collective, and provide a link to the past egocentric structure and the residual religious security contained in it; to reflect on the meaning of life in an eternal sense, on the nature of reality as a cosmic (ordered) whole and to gain access to an ability for psychic glimpses into this reality; to keep tuned into his Soul-level goal on a daily emotional basis and to keep in touch with his resolution node and bring the full powers of his scientific abilities into play, to capitalise on all his past life mental striving and development and take it through to full fruition; to provide objectivity, patience, fixity of purpose, insularity; to give him a traditionally acceptable personality with a natural ability to work with others engendering social security, and a desire to initiate and maintain many professional connections that would immensely enhance his chances of practical success in the world; to lend him the necessary strength and determination, maturity, sensibility and patience that would be required, to doggedly plod on until he could touch and taste his salvation (PPP).

**********

In comprehending the significance of Mercury in Darwin’s chart it will also be helpful to describe the mental context in which Darwin was born. This comes from Charles Darwin’s own past (summarised above). Due to the way the Soul’s mental experiences, strivings and development have occurred in it’s journey through many past lives, it has expanded into all four major corners of the human mind. The Gemini aspect of the mind has been extensively involved in the Soul’s past (Mercury balsamic conj Pluto 3rd), and likewise the Sagittarius aspect (Jupiter new conj Pluto). And with these three planets all being in Pisces, with their ruler in Sagittarius in the 12th Pisces is fully represented, and also Sagittarius is further referenced as well. The last remaining corner is Virgo, which the Soul has accessed in the past via the ruler of the SN Moon also ruling the 6th house, and PPP being in Virgo (and because of the squares to the Moon’s nodal axis we know the Soul has been involved with the PPP before this life). Particularly the stellium in Pisces in the 3rd with Pluto at it’s core —basically speaking, a conjunction involving Mercury, NN mercury, Pluto and Jupiter — Gemini, Sagittarius and Pisces arise intimately entwined from the past, and coming into this life of Darwin both core energetic components of the mind, Mercury and Jupiter, also arrive operating in tandem as one extended energy and function. If Mercury lights up, Jupiter is bound to spark in unison, and vice versa.

Additionally, Mercury is in a LQ sextile to the SN Moon. This means that at the beginning of the recent series of lives the Soul has been slowly sifting through all it’s key main ideas, culling ones it no longer personally needed, and debating with itself about the rest — where did each of these ideas come from? whose idea originally was it, and whose voice was speaking the idea now? Ultimately — of what use to me is the idea, do I actually need and want it? And if I do want it, then from this point on, I’ll make it mine. As this process has continued in these lives, gradually the Soul has revamped it’s mental world, has created a better order and symmetry in it’s mind so that it could contribute to the knowledge in the world from a new place of clarity (LQ), and with a new approach — one of cooperation (sextile). This process has involved the Soul looking at itself in the mirror of it’s mind, and allowing itself to empty out a lot of content, so that the ideas that remained represented it’s own essence much more clearly. The process has also brought the knowingness that the time was right for these ideas to reach the world, and now it was just a matter of waiting till the right conditions for that could be brought about.

So given all this, unlike the Sun and Moon, we can see that the Soul actually had very little choice as to the placement of Mercury in the chart for Darwin. As far as the Soul’s left brain functioning is concerned the choices the Soul has made in the past have “locked the future in” a while ago now. The Soul has been ardently pursuing desires to find the truth (Jupiter/Neptune) for such a long time now that it has nearly exhausted it’s ability to go much further down this track. It has already reached the point where soon it could become dangerously and dysfunctionally lopsided - through too much neglect of the body, emotions and other areas of the psyche. The stellium in the 3rd involving Pluto graphically displays this potential lop-sidedness. Also the fact one aspect of the resolution of the skipped steps involves bringing wounds from many past lives out into consciousness through the physical body itself, so at least they can be processed in some kind of fashion this way, additionally demonstrates that the Soul has pushed it’s mental development to an extreme edge, given that mental development would often have been at the expense of attention to these other neglected areas (Mercury ruling the 7th and Pluto sesquiquadrating Mars in Libra, with Mars in mutual reception to Venus in the 3rd which then rules SN Moon, and SN Venus conj SN Mercury – with 7th, Libra and Venus all relating to the potential for extremes).

So the logical mind (Mercury) was already in a closely culminating position relative to the Soul (Pluto), and since Pluto is in Pisces 3rd, so Mercury will be exactly posited there too as a balsamic conjunction to it, and secondly, in a slightly less constrained way to Jupiter as well. So that’s Mercury’s location – very predetermined.

And that the above is actually the case, is confirmed in a very concise way by Mercury being exactly conjunct it’s own NN; showing there is no future defined — for Mercury to be reaching towards in this life. Mercury must penetrate (Mercury conj Pluto) inwards to perfect as much of itself as possible from what it ALREADY IS, to complete all it’s unfinished business so it can culminate (Mercury balsamic Pluto and Jupiter). Thus Darwin would not have had a mind that kept readily wandering into the future on a regular basis, as the average mind so easily can, and often constantly does. Lacking the normal tension between past and future that all our energies usually have, Darwins’s mind would have been, relatively speaking, an immense pool of mental energy in the present.

Also combined with this is the full Pisces influence on not only Mercury, but also other 3rd house planets - Ceres, Pluto, Juno and Jupiter, with the ruler of them all also being in the 12th. This would have lent him a sense of the beauty in nature, an awareness of it’s aesthetic quality, an appreciation of the sublime gracefulness of it, the poetic substance it’s pictorial displays could often portray. So when this is combined with Mercury/3rd influence Darwin would have been someone who perceived nature not exactly with a sense of awe, but one of fascination, someone for whom the subject of their intellectual curiosity and questions was nothing less than a divine creation – but also a subject about which he would want to not only know everything, but also how it worked in great detail, and then finally what it all meant! (Mercury conj Pluto 3rd, ruler {Neptune} in Sag and the ruler of Neptune back in the 3rd … with the PPP opposing Mercury and Pluto in the 9th).

Given Darwin’s evolutionary stage (3rd individuated) this is a soul that has become attuned to the Whole (Pluto in Pisces), to a spiritual quest to find the truth of the visible Whole, and who underneath that is seeking answers to life itself – why life? (ruler Pluto in Sag 12th, NN Moon new conj Uranus in Scorpio) and who will naturally use the mind exclusively to look for these answers (Mercury conj Pluto conj Jupiter – all in 3rd, all opp PPP in Virgo 9th).

Inevitably Darwin would have contained a paradox within him. On the one hand all his Pisces/12th house factors would have meant he was very innocent, maybe to the point of being naïve in some ways, and very likely to have had a simple faith in the innate goodness of nature, of life, sensing in his heart and bones some general benevolence. He would certainly have been compassionate to some degree, and no doubt very creative and artistic. Yet on the other hand he would also have been a consummate intellectual, a soul in which questions would continuously arise, and inevitably scepticism as well – and so great faith would be sitting side by side with great doubt. While this soul’s mind is of vast proportions in size and also in concern – it’s interest is nothing less than the universal – it would be just as focussed on the smallest of details in it’s environment. (Mercury BS phase Jupiter and bals conj Pluto Pisces 3rd).

Darwin would have had a wide and impartial curiosity in his environment (Merc balsamic phase to Jupiter in 3rd, trine Uranus conj NN Moon in 11th, Sun in Aquarius). Of course he would find many gaps and missing pieces in the mental jigsaw he was building. And this is where he came into his own – for one, he would have been a phenomenal observer. Because Mercury is exactly conjunct it’s NN, both in Pisces, he would have been able to tune into whatever he was observing without his mind interfering, and simply observe - just watch - for long periods of time, almost becoming one with what he was observing in a timeless space (Mercury balsamic Pluto). Thus he would see many things that other people would miss, the tiniest of details for example, but also intrinsic patterns in whatever he was observing.

And where gaps appeared in his mental constructs many irresistible questions would arise in his mind about the gap, and what the answer might be. Mercury in the 3rd house creates a question generating machine – and with Mercury conj Pluto those questions would be deep and penetrating. And a lot of emotional security would have been invested in finding the answers to these questions, so the questions would have resonated deeply in his mind, and even his body. And because the NN Moon is in Scorpio ruled by Pluto back in the 3rd only the real answer would satisfy – anything else would be rejected. This means that Darwin’s mind would have been forever processing on a subconscious and also unconscious level, never truly resting – a driven soul. But not necessarily an unhappy one. For the first time in many lifetimes the Soul has created a situation where it was possible to focus almost exclusively on the use of the mind for it’s own sake – knowing that all necessary resources would be supplied as needed and that generally survival would not be of any concern. This was a “hallelujah” to Darwin (at least on a Soul level), although the feeling was probably never expressed very openly (Moon in Capricorn). So we have a happy soul on a huge mission – to understand the laws behind organic life on Earth. And in following this mission, Darwin is hoping lifetimes of previous endeavour will be brought to fruition – and in dramatic style (Leo on 9th house cusp).

What gives Darwin such a special mental capacity is the ability to handle complexity on a vast scale, to be able to pigeon-hole in his mind the widest collection of facts, and later to be able to see the patterns running through these facts, or recognise natural groupings within different lots of facts, and then the obvious unification of whole differing groups of facts into larger and larger wholes. But not only within one sphere – he’d be able to see how one whole realm was joined to another e.g. how an understanding in geology also shed light on a seemingly unrelated group of facts in biology, thus creating an even larger generalisation or overview of a situation (Mercury in 3rd trine Uranus in Scorpio in 11th, and balsamic to Jupiter). And with the 2nd house Sun in Aquarius, and Moon in Capricorn he had the patience needed to test all the facts where necessary, or to wait until he had got all the facts he needed in order for the natural meaning inherent in all the facts to reveal itself to him (Jupiter new conj Pluto) – for the simple truth to arise (PPP in Virgo 9th).

Darwin would have had an instinct for the truth (Venus in Aries new conj Jupiter 3rd, Venus in mutual reception with Mars), he would have also had flashes of intuition regarding it (Jup new conj Plu ruled by Nep in Sag), plus psychic glimpses of the truth as well (Pallas Aquarius 3rd new conj Mercury). It wouldn’t have taken him too long to start sensing it for himself – he had many insights when on the Beagle and knew he was somehow looking at pieces of a big picture.

Quote

Darwin’s theories eventually became more substantially formed, at least for himself, and he started to intuitively sense their integrity. But for two reasons he needed to be able to prove his theories to any number of other scientists – (one) to fully convince himself that he had in fact answered his own question, solved his own puzzle, and (two) so that he would have the social protection of the weight of numbers on his side, as he knew that his and thus his family’s safety depended on it.

With Mercury FQ sesquiquadrate to Mars in the 10th he knew he must be careful of the social reaction to any radical ideas. He would have made an effort to analyse and gauge the openness and readiness of the scientific community at least, if not the public as well, to hear what he had to say (NN Moon new conj Uranus in Scorpio 11th, Pluto DS square to Saturn in 12th).

He knew in his bones he could take no chances, so he decided to prove everything from the ground up – to associate every statement he made with the evidence that proved it true. Thus ultimately for him …

Quote

proving the truth of nature required infinite instances and endless examples, plus exhaustive surveys of the whole field of nature in a thousand petty details – and by nature it was all piecemeal.”

But he had learnt patience on the Beagle, and he applied it to the task. He had developed “a patient and painstaking method of inquiry based on uncompromised logical integrity” (3rd house Mercury/Pluto/Jupiter stellium, Mercury square Saturn). He succeeded in moving mountains with logical power, continuously labouring at collecting and then organising his vast accumulation of illustrative facts. For instance Darwin spent hours in noting the successive movements of the tendrils in a plant, or over a five year period watching the various habits and behaviours of earthworms in his flower-pots.

Quote

In order to convince not only the greater scientific minds, but also the rank and file of scientific workers, plus the minds of various respected philosophers, and of generalists, he needed to bring together an imposing array of closely and highly organised facts, to make sure his logic in the foundation - and progressively in each succeeding layer of his overall argument - was rock solid before proceeding; a (very Virgo like) process of building a systematic mountain of knowledge backed up at each turn by irrefutable evidence (Saturn in Sag balsamic conj the ruler of the main 3rd house stellium). So at each juncture of his logic, at the interface between each conclusion he would draw from a collection of evidences and the next conclusion from the next collection of evidences he would then attach to that, he had to anticipate every conceivable argument a third party could have at that point, and formulate beforehand (and also be thoroughly familiar with) completely logical and also ultimately practically satisfying answers to all these possible objections.

As described here, and as we have seen via his mental signatures, Darwin had become an intellectual giant.

It is at this point that some of the Soul's more restrictive karma has been dissolved, involving the deep need the Soul had developed for personal emotional security based on attachment to a limited set of facts i.e. to fixed ideas (Pluto in 3rd, Mercury conj Pluto). Emotional attachment to certain pre-existing beliefs has been the basis for so many of the Soul's confrontations in society over so many past lives, which has ended up creating a great deal of mental frustration, boredom and eventual stagnation, and an excessive build-up of restlessness and need within the Soul for mental progress and resolution. This need, combined with the hard-won clarity that outright confrontation always ends up being counter-productive, meant Darwin absolutely knew he had to find the objective reality (NN Moon conj Uranus in 11th) and that no pre-existing belief, either his or another's, was of any value to him unless it could be objectively proven to be true (Sun in Aquarius 2nd). Both his and his family's lives depended on it (Moon in 2nd). And with such a potent motivation to go beyond his own mental limitations, his own emotional boundaries, in an open and objective investigation into the unknown (resolution Node - NN in Scorpio in 11th), he bit by bit (PPP in Virgo) dissolved his karmic attachments to his personal truth, and opened the door to a new level of emotional and mental freedom (PPP in 9th).

With Mercury in the 3rd Darwin would have been a natural communicator, and he did communicate constantly via letters with many people – his scientific friends and colleagues, scientists in other countries, his sisters, and his own wife and children. His communication had a kind of poetic conversational style decorated with a slightly dry wit, and also often laced with irony (Mercury trine Uranus).

He was also not in fact a great analyser as such – Mercury being in Pisces such deductive reasoning did not come naturally, and he wasn’t particularly interested in it. He liked to bring simple order to details so he could apprehend the inner pattern within them in a single glance rather than mince them up into something they may or may not be. So while his mind was incredibly potent, he had learnt to keep the millions of things within it simple and intact (6th house cusp and SN Moon in Taurus, ruler Venus in Aries in 3rd), having also learnt, over a period of time, to trust that his intuition would provide him any relevant meaning he needed from a set of data or a situation (Mercury bals Jupiter, PPP in 9th). That’s not to say Darwin wouldn’t have used analysis at all – he would have. With Taurus on his 6th house the process of analysis for him would have been a grounding one, using it as a sorting facility deciding which arguments warranted effort to develop and which could be shelved for later or abandoned, which arguments were liable to be attacked and would need a bulletproof defence … what he needed to consider in order to be more mentally self-reliant, more mentally self-contained. Additionally with the PPP in Virgo in 9th he would have able to comprehend how various concepts whose meanings were intricately interwoven together reflected one central principle, how on a practical level that there was always unity in diversity,

Mercury in Pisces in FQ square to Saturn in Sag in the 12th would mean that Darwin may have been a somewhat slow learner, at least in subjects that he wasn’t passionate about. This would have due to the Pisces/Sag influence which tends to promote right brained perception, and also because he would have been very much needing to focus on what did actually interest him, in order that he could establish mental goals that were relevant to him as part of his life’s mission — culminating lifetimes of individuation through mental development.

Mercury is also in FQ square to Neptune in Sag in the 12th, and this would have meant a portion of all the questions that poured into Darwin’s mind would have been around the issue of what is God? who is God? or is there God? Darwin would have had no choice but to think about these questions (FQ), even though he would probably not have felt that the answers could directly affect his life as such, it was the resolution of the unknown he was after, and like all scientists he fully believed that resolution of the unknown was desirable and also possible. And due to all his Pisces planets being ruled by Neptune in 12th but also squaring Saturn balsamic conj Neptune in 12th he no doubt inherited from his past lives reasonably conservative religious conditioning that he needed to think about, now make his mind up concerning his mental position. He was therefore born into a non-conformist environment, and later married an unconventional and thinking Christian. And despite his own conservative religious conditioning being very real, Darwin also knew that any God worth it’s salt needed to stand up to his logic. For Darwin, logic had proved itself to him time and time again, and he knew he could rely on it. And so he allowed his logic to gradually challenge his own religious beliefs, and as a result his belief in a God ever so gradually completely faded. There were some distinct turning points in this process, but those can be dealt with in another post.

SummaryDarwin has been working directly with Mercury as a central resource with which to individuate over many, many lives. Consequently his left brained logical mind is extremely highly developed, and along the way has also been integrated with his right brained intuition. Thus it is difficult to describe Mercury’s role in the life separate to the role of Jupiter. The underlying desire that brings these two aspects of the mind together is a deep longing to find the truth about life as it is experienced in form (Sat/Nep in Sag 12th), not just a personal truth (Pluto in 3rd) or a non-personal but partial truth (PPP in 9th), but the whole truth (Neptune in Sag 12th), to return to Source itself (Pluto in Pisces, ruler of PPP in Pisces). Long ago the Soul identified the mind, initially Mercury, then at a later stage Jupiter too, as the means to individuate towards that truth, and so that is what it has done. However it’s time for using Mercury as a means to individuate, as it’s pathway, is practically at the end (Mercury bals conj Pluto, Mercury conj it’s NN). Therefore the Soul has created a critical lifetime in which everything necessary to culminate the long history of left-brained Mercury effort is available. All that was left to do was for the personality, Darwin, to use his free will wisely, in accordance with his creative purpose (Sun), and make the most of what had thus been provided. And that’s exactly what Darwin did, and we all know the result – fruition on a grand scale.

This is simply brilliant and stunning EA work relative to why Darwin chose, or as you put it his Soul had no real choice, to have his Mercury in the 3rd House/ Pisces. That 'choice' was simply a 'logical consequence' of all that had come before in the evolutionary journey of Darwin's Soul. Your EA analysis is a deep as it is comprehensive in tying together all the various Soul dynamics in such a way as to convey the vastness of his Mercury mind: of how it worked and why. His ongoing quest to understand, inductively, the natural laws that are the causative factors in the manifested organic Creation is indeed the very essence of the mind that Darwin had. It would not be a stretch to ponder that in the next and immediate lives of the Soul of Darwin that it would focus on what the natural laws of Consciousness itself are since existing empirical science can not account for, or explain, what those laws are and, indeed, what consciousness actually is: consciousness within the organic manifestation of Creation itself.

Your EA work is breathtaking Upasika. This is how EA is meant to be done. In doing it in the way that you are you are helping many others understand exactly that.